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<h1><a name="SECTION0033100000000000000000">
31.1 The basic interface</a>
</h1>

<p>
<a name="module-compiler"></a>
<p>
The top-level of the package defines four functions.  If you import
<tt class="module">compiler</tt>, you will get these functions and a collection of
modules contained in the package.

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-5492' xml:id='l2h-5492' class="function">parse</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>buf</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Returns an abstract syntax tree for the Python source code in <var>buf</var>.
The function raises <tt class="exception">SyntaxError</tt> if there is an error in the
source code.  The return value is a <tt class="class">compiler.ast.Module</tt> instance
that contains the tree.  
</dl>

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-5493' xml:id='l2h-5493' class="function">parseFile</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>path</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return an abstract syntax tree for the Python source code in the file
specified by <var>path</var>.  It is equivalent to
<code>parse(open(<var>path</var>).read())</code>.
</dl>

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-5494' xml:id='l2h-5494' class="function">walk</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>ast, visitor</var><big>[</big><var>, verbose</var><big>]</big><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Do a pre-order walk over the abstract syntax tree <var>ast</var>.  Call the
appropriate method on the <var>visitor</var> instance for each node
encountered.
</dl>

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-5495' xml:id='l2h-5495' class="function">compile</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>source, filename, mode, flags=None, 
			dont_inherit=None</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Compile the string <var>source</var>, a Python module, statement or
expression, into a code object that can be executed by the exec
statement or <tt class="function">eval()</tt>. This function is a replacement for the
built-in <tt class="function">compile()</tt> function.

<p>
The <var>filename</var> will be used for run-time error messages.

<p>
The <var>mode</var> must be 'exec' to compile a module, 'single' to compile a
single (interactive) statement, or 'eval' to compile an expression.

<p>
The <var>flags</var> and <var>dont_inherit</var> arguments affect future-related
statements, but are not supported yet.
</dl>

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-5496' xml:id='l2h-5496' class="function">compileFile</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>source</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Compiles the file <var>source</var> and generates a .pyc file.
</dl>

<p>
The <tt class="module">compiler</tt> package contains the following modules:
<tt class="module"><a href="module-compiler.ast.html">ast</a></tt>, <tt class="module">consts</tt>, <tt class="module">future</tt>,
<tt class="module">misc</tt>, <tt class="module">pyassem</tt>, <tt class="module">pycodegen</tt>, <tt class="module">symbols</tt>,
<tt class="module">transformer</tt>, and <tt class="module"><a href="module-compiler.visitor.html">visitor</a></tt>.

<p>

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<span class="release-info">Release 2.5.1, documentation updated on 18th April, 2007.</span>
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